"The UN Declaration is a declaration that contains the collective nature of the rights of indigenous peoples. (It) is meant to bring about remedies to kinds of historical and current injustices that indigenous people suffer," said UN Special Rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz during a press briefing on 26 January.

Tauli-Corpuz stressed the need for countries to incorporate the UN Declaration into national plans and legislation in order to ensure indigenous rights.

"My message is for indigenous peoples to continue to assert and claim their rights as enshrined in the UN Declaration, but also to call in the States to really fulfill their obligation to comply and implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples," Tauli-Corpuz stated.

"What we need to do now is to really use this 10th year of the celebration of the UN Declaration to further strengthen dialogue," she said.- - -

Assembly of First Nations National Chief to Participate in United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

(Ottawa, ON): Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde will join the 16th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York, NY this week. He will be at UN headquarters Monday April 24 and Tuesday April 25 to mark the tenth anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and will speak about the steps needed to advance its implementation.

“The adoption of the UN Declaration is a milestone in the history of advancing the rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada and around the world,” said National Chief Bellegarde. “It took almost 10 years for Canada to express its unqualified support for the Declaration. Now that we have this commitment, we must work together effectively as partners to realize those rights. The work we are doing as Indigenous peoples with the Government of Canada to co-develop an Indigenous Languages Act is an example of how we can work together on essential, important work. This must be our approach to advance all our rights using the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as our framework for reconciliation.”

On Tuesday April 25, National Chief Bellegarde will deliver a statement at the UN General Assembly Hall on behalf of the Coalition on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

On Tuesday afternoon from 1:15 – 2:45 PM, AFN is co-hosting a special side event on the Implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. For details on this special side event please visit the AFN website at http://www.afn.ca.

The UN Declaration sets out minimum standards for ensuring Indigenous peoples enjoy fundamental human rights, including the collective right to self-determination and rights to our lands, territories and resources. The Declaration is an essential framework for reconciliation and renewing the nation-to-nation relationship as called for by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The Government of Canada gave its unqualified support to the UN Declaration on May 10th, 2016.

The 16th Session of the UNPFII’s special theme is “Tenth Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: measures taken to implement the Declaration”. For live video streaming of all open meetings visit http://webtv.un.org/

The AFN is the national organization representing First Nations citizens in Canada. Follow AFN on Twitter @AFN_Updates.

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High-level 10th Anniversary Commemoration

On Tuesday 25 April 2017, the President of the 71st session of the General Assembly will organize a high-level event to mark the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

This will take place at the General Assembly Hall at 10:00 am.

ObjectivesThis is in follow up to the General Assembly decision to convene a high-level event to mark the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to be held during the seventy-first session of the General Assembly, in 2017 (Resolutions A/RES/69/159, A/RES/70/232 and A/RES/71/178).

This event will take stock of achievements made since the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, to identify ongoing persistent challenges and obstacles and to consider good practices. It will also provide an opportunity to review the commitments made by Member States in the outcome document of the 2014 World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. Participants will have an opportunity to make concrete commitments to further increase their efforts to implement the provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

FormatThe high-level event will be convened by the President of the General Assembly on 25 April, 2017 at the General Assembly Hall, during the annual session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. This is in order to take advantage of the presence of high level dignitaries from Member States and high number of indigenous peoples’ representatives from across the globe. In a view to facilitate the participation of indigenous peoples, the Forum will temporarily suspend its morning session.

The high-level event will consist of an opening segment and high-level plenary meeting. In the opening segment the President of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General and Key Note Speakers will deliver remarks. The three UN mechanisms on the rights of indigenous peoples’ will also be invited to speak. During the high level plenary meeting the list of speakers will rotate between Member States and indigenous peoples’ representatives.

Conference Room 4 will be used as the over floor room for the morning session of the High-level event.

Nomination for speakers from the seven socio-cultural regions The President of the General Assembly invites the indigenous participants attending the 16th session of the Permanent Forum to select one speaker from each of the seven socio-cultural regions, to address the high level plenary meeting on behalf of her/his region.

The name of the indigenous speaker is to be sent by Monday, 24 April 2017, 6pm to Mr. Carlos Galindo (galindo@un.org).

Seven socio-cultural regions: Africa; Asia; Central and South America, and the Caribbean; the Arctic; Central and Eastern Europe, the Russian Federation, Central Asia and Transcaucasia; North America; and the Pacific.

“4. Reaffirms the decision to convene a high-level event to mark the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to be held during the seventy-first session of the General Assembly, in 2017, and that the event will take stock of the achievements of the preceding 10 years and assess the remaining challenges for the rights of indigenous peoples, and also consider the further follow-up to the Declaration, including the consideration of a third International Decade;”

And according to General Assembly resolution (A/RES/69/159) on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, of 18 December 2014, the General Assembly:

“5. Decides to convene a high-level event to mark the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to be held during the seventy-first session of the General Assembly, in 2017, and that the event will take stock of the achievements of the preceding 10 years and assess the remaining challenges for the rights of indigenous peoples, and also consider the further follow-up to the Declaration, including the consideration of a third International Decade;”